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Themes, Ideas and Messages GapFill
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In Lord of the Flies, William Golding explores the central conflict that exists within humans and society: the need to live a secure and peaceful life obeying the of the land and the need to act upon one's immediate desires. This is at the heart of the novel's key theme of versus . As the boys stranded on the island are from civilised English backgrounds, a related theme of the novel is the loss of . The novel relates this to a third theme, suggesting that, when missing the civilising forces of their home life, the children descend into savagery because the capacity for has always existed within them. A fourth theme, related again to the others, is the loss of , with Piggy being the character who struggles in vain to exercise it.
This inability to think for oneself becomes a feature of life on the island and is related to the theme of the danger of rule: the boys hide behind warpaint and commit worse and worse atrocities believing that they are defending themselves from a non-existent 'Beast'. The novel depicts how, far from the parliamentary democracy model envisaged by Piggy and Ralph, the island is run like a lawless regime where only Jack's orders count. This has an associated theme, that of , which is principally illustrated by the murders of Simon and Piggy.
Two overarching themes of the novel are and the future of . The action is set against the backdrop of the World War against 'the . The boys' descent into barbarity, therefore, illustrates another theme, that of the influence of upon society and smaller social groups.